Also Twinkie at Prehistoric Pets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFhDhVaGbsYBut this is about as huge as they get and if you feed them a lot. Remember the HUGE burms and retics people take around places to show off, are often fed more than they need to get as large as possible.And of course, males will always be smaller.

My main interest is in parrots, dogs, toothed whales and snakes.Future animals I want to have when we have land are camels, wolfdogs/wolves, coyotes or jackals, striped hyena or aardwolf. Also poultry, rabbits water buffalo and/or yak for livestock.

Wanted to add that in my new job I handle large constrictors on a daily basis. So my opinions have definitely changed. I would never want a female retic, OR a female burm (unless the burm was on the small side). I can't handle the retics well at all since they are SO squirmy and on the move. Very difficult to carry different places, and not a good idea to let them out depending on your setup (will go underneath shelves; and if they arch their back, the shelf will tip over; they are super strong--pure muscle).

The only time I'd get a retic is if it was a really cool morph--and it was male. Yeah, I heft the huge female retic around from time to time, but it is SUCH a chore.

Burmese pythons are like the opposite--they aren't on the move. Which also makes them very hard to handle. They just want to sit in one spot only, and they are not helpful when you're trying to get them in or out of the cage. So you wind up lifting all their dead weight. At least the retics will MOVE, whereas the burms are just like "see if you can lift me."

I really like the burms temperament-wise. They're very chill and relaxed with big puppy faces. But a PAIN to move anywhere! The exception is the males simply because they do not get so enormous. So the male burms and subadult female burms are really fun and easy to handle (in my opinion).

Surprisingly, what I've come to really have an appreciation for are green anacondas. They were always one of those snakes I never wanted to own and wasn't interested in owning. But now that I've worked with them, I would take one over a retic any day. They are lazy-ish like burms, but they will move on their own (like retics). So it's actually fun to handle them. The two we have there are females, but they are not full-grown. So I don't know what it would be like to handle a huge one. But they are about the size of full-grown males (so give or take some footage and weight). So a male anaconda will probably be in my future.

So for me, retics are pretty much out; they're too big of an armful. Female burms--way too heavy.

After having experience with these snakes, I realistically would like to own a male burm or a male anaconda (maybe full-grown female, but haven't handled a full-grown one yet).

anacondas aren't actually all that bad of a choice for a large snake, people just think they grow into these giant monsters, but that is really rare, and only applied to old females. most females in captivity will top out to be 16 to 18 feet long, and most males will top out at 12 to 14 feet long. They are also really slow growing. where a retic might get 8 to 10 foot long at 1 year old, or a burm would be 6 to 8 foot long, an anaconda would be only 4 foot, you'd be waiting between 3 to 5 years for it to be of a size to put a hurting on you.as far as the downsides of anaconda ownership, they do need large bodies of water, especially as adults. the problem is their frame is not able to support their massive bulk on land, they need the buoyancy of the water to support themselves, other wise they may die from their organs being crushed under their own body weight. they are also much stronger then a burm or retic of comparable size. They also are more temperamental and unpredictable, and do not like being restrained in anyway so you need to be careful handling them, something as innocuous as being snagged on your shirt or friction that might feel like a tug on them can cause them to whip round and bite what they may think is something grabbing onto them.as far as female burms and retics go, they don't 'have' to be giants. most of them are giants because we, quite frankly, over feed them in captivity. you can maintain them on a nice healthy diet and keep them small and slim. in captivity a lot of people will feed their babies 3 times a week on large food items that stretch out the belly, dropping back to twice a week and then once a week, getting snakes that are 12 to 15 foot within 2 or 3 years. if you were to instead start out feeding once a week and drop back to every 2 weeks after a little while, and eventually drop back to every month or even less often, you will end up with a smaller, but still healthy, snake. it may, with time, end up being large, but not until it's much older then your typical captive retic, giving you lots of time to develop your handling skills along with it, you won't suddenly wake up with a giant snake in your house! same thing with burms. you could also consider part dwarf burms (i don't know if they're available in your state) or part dwarf retics, they will stay smaller as well, and are available in all the morphs the big guys come in.